A comparative study of attitudes to giving and accepting help

The research was intended to explore people's attitudes to the social transaction of giving and receiving help in situations of practical and material need, to assess their willingness to give and to accept help in defined situations, and to record the circumstances which they considered to be important in deciding whether to give and to accept help. The survey was conducted in a village in Norwegian Lapland where interesting developments in this field were said to be taking place. A class of students at the local Youth School was invited to respond in writing to a series of need situations presented as a tape-recorded projection test. The same test, illustrated with a film-strip, was used as the basis of intensive tape-recorded interviews with selected individual adult villagers. The results of the tests indicated that the subjects tested were not such rare givers nor such cheerful receivers as popular tradition held the Lapps to be. A great variety of circumstances influenced them in their decisions. Sympathy, and a strong sense of obligation to help in some situations, were the main reasons for giving. Decisions to accept or reject help were considerably influenced by the urgency of the need, by the benefits which would result from accepting, and "by the wish and obligation to be independent and self-sufficient. There were wide individual variations in willingness to give and accept help, and in the influence of the circumstances of the test situations on the decisions made. Instead of the expected inverse correlation between giving and accepting, various combinations of willingness to give and to accept were observed which reflected the different personalities and attitudes. It was found that none of the current theories on giving and receiving was sufficient to account for all the attitudes revealed, though each was relevant upon occasion.<p

Macrophomina phaseolina causing leaf spot of mungbean

Macrophomina phaseolina, causing leaf spot of mungbean is reported in Australia. Koch's postulates were fulfilled. The inoculum source was considered to be microsclerotia of the fungus in soil splashed onto the leaves. The disease is not expected to be a problem in Australia in most years

First report of stem rot and wilt of chickpea caused by Sclerotinia minor in Queensland, Australia

Sclerotinia minor is reported for the first time in Queensland on chickpea. Koch's postulates were fulfilled

First report of stem rot and wilt of chickpea caused by Sclerotinia minor in Queensland, Australia

Sclerotinia minor is reported for the first time in Queensland on chickpea. Koch's postulates were fulfilled

Macrophomina phaseolina causing leaf spot of mungbean

Macrophomina phaseolina, causing leaf spot of mungbean is reported in Australia. Koch’s postulates were fulfilled. The inoculum source was considered to be microsclerotia of the fungus in soil splashed onto the leaves. The disease is not expected to be a problem in Australia in most years

Infection of mungbean seed by Macrophomina phaseolina is more likely to result from localized pod infection than from systemic plant infection

The ubiquitous fungal pathogen Macrophomina phaseolina is best known as causing charcoal rot and premature death when host plants are subject to post-flowering stress. Overseas reports of M.phaseolina causing a rapid rot during the sprouting of Australian mungbean seed resulted in an investigation of the possible modes of infection of seed. Isolations from serial portions of 10 mungbean plants naturally infected with the pathogen revealed that on most plants there were discrete portions of infected tissue separated by apparently healthy tissue. The results from these studies, together with molecular analysis of isolates collected from infected tissue on two of the plants, suggested that aerial infection of aboveground parts by different isolates is common. Inoculations of roots and aboveground parts of mungbean plants at nine temperaturexsoil moisture incubation combinations and of detached green pods strongly supported the concept that seed infection results from infection of pods by microsclerotia, rather than from hyphae growing systemically through the plant after root or stem infection. This proposal is reinforced by anecdotal evidence that high levels of seed infection are common when rainfall occurs during pod fill, and by the isolation of M.phaseolina from soil peds collected on pods of mungbean plants in the field. However, other experiments showed that when inoculum was placed within 130mm of a green developing pod and a herbicide containing paraquat and diquat was sprayed on the inoculated plants, M.phaseolina was capable of some systemic growth from vegetative tissue into the pods and seeds